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Thursday, October 31, 2013

Hello, and welcome to the first edition of My Writing: The Early Years.

Let's go WAY back, to the time where there was no internet. Or, at least to a time where the internet didn't exist as it does today.

Back in the mid to late 80s, without boring anyone with a history lesson, the closest equivalent to the internet you could find were these local bulletin board systems, or BBSs, where you could dial in with a phone modem and talk to other people who also dialed in. Most times "talking" involved posting messages on what people today might know as a message forum. There were a few BBSs out there where you could do real-time chat, play multiplayer games, etc, but those were few and far between and didn't really explode onto the scene until the early 90s maybe, not long before the world wide web came and blew all that away.

On one particular BBS called DragNet (named after the popular TV show), I used to post my own stories, because it was the only forum I knew for the brain farts that passed as my writing, and the other users seemed to enjoy them.

(It didn't dawn on me then that I could actually try to publish anything in magazines, although I did enter two writing contests when I was younger. But I digress.)

I posted a good number of stories over the years I spent on there, but out of all those, only ONE survived in my own files. The rest, presumably, still exist on the ancient Apple computer that hosted DragNet BBS. I'm still waiting for the System Operator from that time to fire up that old Apple, but I think it might involve more hamsters and wheels than he can get his hands on without involving a builder's permit or animal control.

Anyway, without further ado, here it is, the only surviving piece of writing from the mid to late 80s. It's also my first, last, and only radio script.

And to any publishers or agents who might be peeking into my blog (** if only **), please don't judge me on this.

Enjoy!

---

MEGAGOLF

Jim
Cronan:This is Jim Cronan, speaking
to you live from the planet of Aggraria where the new season of MegaGolf is
about to begin. For those of you who are interested in seeing this spectacular
event live, here are the directions. Note that these directions are for the
people of the planet of Aggraria. Take Canal 61 north to Falch’s Canal. Take
Falch’s Canal east for about a mile. Don’t worry, there’ll be signs on the way.
Please, if you happen to hit any, inform someone of this so that they can
promptly put up another one. The name of the field is Somethingorother Field.
Well, not all of the contestants are here yet, so we’ll take a commercial break
here.

Commercial
Announcer:Introducing the latest and
greatest product from Dr. Ford GWIIInc.: the Cheese-Powered Lawnmower! Yes,
folks, no more wasting your money on lots of gasoline to waste on those other
gas-guzzling mowers. Now just one small block of cheese will power our
lawnmower nicely and it will not run out of energy until the job is done! This
is the answer to all you people out there who may have tons of left-over cheese
from your parties because no one likes it. And now you know what to do with
that spoilt cheese – our lawnmowers run even better on it. Now, you must be
saying to yourself, this must cost a fortune. Wrong! This amazing machine costs
only 200 Aggrarian dollars, or $199.95 in American money! That’s it! And all
you hafta do is pick up the phone and order today. The number is
111-123-1111-11111-11, or 111-123-1111-12 in the Exceptia area. Or write to our
company address: Dr. Ford’s GWIIInc., 115 Somethingorother Lane, Jordan City,
Golqua, 1231231.

Jim
Cronan:Well, we’re back and it seems
that the four contestants are now entirely here. Let’s go on location with Doug
Phlegm.

Doug
Phlegm:This is Doug Phlegm here on
the shoreline of Somethingorother’s Field, where the players are practicing for
the game. Let’s go have a talk with them.

F/X:Sounds of people grunting
and loud squishing sounds.

Doug
Phlegm:Uh, excuse me, Sir. May I ask
you your name?

Uly
Throttle:Uly Throttle, Sir. I suggest
you step back or I may accidentally hit you with my mallet.

Uly
Throttle:Are you kidding? No one has
ever survived after playing me in a game of MegaGolf. I used to play my friend
when I was a young lad, and let me tell you that I was a very lonely child,
Sir.

Doug
Phlegm:Uh, yeah, well you’re gonna
have quick a match playing the Stick...

Uly
Throttle:That wimp?! You look at my
name and that’ll tell you what I’ll do when I catch him!

Doug
Phlegm:Yes, well, we’ll go have a
talk with the next player, who just happens to be that brutal, totally
unpredictable MegaGolf player, Tom “The Stick” Wilson. Excuse me, Sir, but I
was just wondering...

“The
Stick”:Get outta my way, I’m
practicin’!

F/X:Sound of an especially loud
swish.

Doug
Phlegm:Yes, well, I can see that. I
just want to ask you a couple of questions.

“The
Stick”:Some people just don’t
listen...

F/X:Sound of an even louder
swish, then a loud crack followed by a moan of pain. Then static.

Jim
Cronan:Umm, we seem to have lost
contact with our on-location reporter. No matter... the competition seems to be
starting. The contestants are boarding their golf carts at this time. Some of
you may be wondering where I am at this time. I am currently floating above the
field in my nuclear-powered blimp, along with forty-eight others, I might add.
As long as we don’t collide up here... but enough of this. Before the game
begins, let me tell you about the other two players we didn’t have a chance to
talk with before. The third player is a man by the name of Winston Stohf from
the planet Oather. He has been a MegaGolf champion for three years on his home
planet. Let’s see if he lasts here. The last player is a very famous player
from his home planet of Sircia. His name is Sir Qualife Thek, one of the most
wealthy people of his planet. You can see him down there now waving his golden
golfing mallet. Well, the competition is about to begin.

F/X:Lyrics of Sledgehammer can
be heard in the background.

Jim
Cronan:A thank you goes out to
Jessica Purfle for giving us this inspirational song you can hear now. Jessica,
if you’re listening, please come up to the office and pick up your pass to be
the first person to enter the field for souvenirs. Well, there’s the bell, and
the golf carts are off, racing down the field with their drivers waving their
mallets madly in the air. It seems that The Stick is in the lead, followed
closely by Sir Qualife, Uly Throttle, and last, Winston Stohf, who is now
closing in rapidly on Throttle. The Stick has reached the ball, raises his
mallet, and sends the ball flying with a perfect swing. During this pause, Thek
passes him in his golf cart. Poor Thek doesn’t realize that no one survives the
wrath of The Stick, who is now frantically pursuing him. Meanwhile, Stohf has
caught up with Throttle. He raises his mallet and gives him a good whack over
the head! Throttle’s golf cart is now out of control, zigzagging on the green.
And Throttle is out of the game, at least temporarily, for his golf cart is
stuck in the sand trap! Further up, Sir Qualiffe has reached the ball and he
sends it flying. Which was a foolish action, for The Stick was there behind him
with a perfect swing to the back of Qualiffe’s head. And Sir Qualiffe is
knocked unconscious. That only leaves The Stick and Stohf, who is quite far
behind. The Stick reaches the ball and whacks it. It’s a crazy flight – oh no,
it’s landed in the Marshi Canal! He’s swinging wildly with his mallet,
searching for the ball. He’s found it, and it leaves the canal with a graceful
flight and lands not twenty feet from the goal! But The Stick is having a bit
of trouble getting his cart out of the canal. He’s making a run for it! But
wait! Stohf’s cart flies over the canal, and he can be seen grinning wildly as
he bears down on The Stick. What is he doing? The Stick has turned around. He
aims, then he throws his mallet into the face of the astonished Stohf! The cart
flips over once, twice, three times. Looks like Stohf is finished for this
game. And The Stick is heading for the goal. He whacks the ball, but it falls
short of the goal by a few feet. The goalies are there first and whack the ball
away. The Stick swings again, and it’s blocked again. Now The Stick is upon
them, beating them senseless! I don’t believe this! I’ve never seen such brutal
treatment of the goalies in my entire life! Two more goalies come out to their
aide, and they are quickly dispatched also! The Stick finds the ball, and
before the next two goalies reach the goal, The Stick hits it in for a win! The
crowd is going wild over here. Our on-location reporter, who seems to have
recovered, will see if he can get a statement from the winner...

Doug Phlegm:Hello again, this is Doug Phlegm, and I’m
standing among the crowd here as they wait to shake hands with Tom “The Stick”
Wilson. Let’s get in closer and speak with him.

F/X:Sounds of cheering can be
heard, along with a shout of “Hey, watch it!” and “Where do you think you’re
going?”

Doug
Phlegm:Uh, excuse me, Mr. Wilson, but
may I have a word with you?

“The
Stick”:Get away, I’m busy!

Doug
Phlegm:Uh, yes, I can see that. I
would just like to ask you some questions.

“The
Stick”:Some people just don’t
listen...

F/X:Sound of a loud swish, then
a loud crack, then a loud moan of pain. Sounds of cheering from the crowd can
be heard. From somewhere in the background comes a woman’s voice: “Oh my God!
Jessica, what’s happened? Somebody get an ambulance, my daughter’s been
trampled! Somebody PLEASE help me!” Then static.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Let's talk about the overwhelming exercise of editing your manuscript for a moment. And it definitely CAN be overwhelming, especially if you're in a critique group that's great about giving feedback, like the groups I currently belong to. You come back from your group with lots of notes, you sit down with your manuscript and the feedback, and then... freeze. If you listen carefully, you can actually hear the gears of your mind grind to a halt. You stare at your manuscript, and it's like you were back at the very beginning of the process, when you were staring at the blank page, wondering what to write.

Now let me jump into a day-job-related analogy. I worked with a guy at my last job who loved to put down what he liked to call The Big Bang Theory style of software development. This is one view I agreed with him on wholeheartedly. The Big Bang Theory goes something like this: When you're given a bunch of requirements to develop or enhance your software, you just throw them into your code all at once. You can take a wild guess what's going to happen if you do something like that. Your computer's inevitably going to go splodey, and you'll have no CLUE which one of the 15 things you just wrote caused the blue screen of death to appear.

How do you prevent something like this? You program ONE THING AT A TIME, then test it to see if it works before moving onto the next thing. Not only does it save headaches trying to figure out what went wrong, but at the end of the day, you've ACCOMPLISHED something. You can say, "I got this one thing done, and here's the result."

When you edit your manuscript, you should be approaching things the same exact way. Avoid The Big Bang Theory approach. Address each of those comments one at a time. You'll prevent your head from going splodey, and you'll have something to show for your work at the end of the day. Isn't it much better to say "I fixed all the dialogue throughout my entire manuscript" than "I've been trying to tackle all these issues and I've only gotten to page 10"?

Let's say the comments you received on your story are similar to the following:

1. The dialogue between the two kids in chapter 1 doesn't sound very authentic. They sound more like adults talking than kids.
2. Your language needs to be tightened up in a number of places.
3. Your story opening doesn't sound strong enough. Make the reader identify with the main character and her plight, and make the conflict more immediate.
4. The dialogue in chapter 3 also doesn't sound very authentic.

You have two comments on dialogue there, so I'd combine those into a general editing task of reviewing ALL your dialogue to see how authentic the voices are.

The others are categories by themselves - tightening up your language, and fix your story opening.

Pick one of these items to tackle and complete that first before you go on to the next. Continue until all issues are addressed. Also, once you've finished each issue, you can bring what you've done back to your critique group and show them your progress on that one issue. It'll be easier for the group to process as well, and they can stay focused on helping you with the one issue.

How do you know which one to pick first? Again, I go back to my day job for inspiration. I always pick the largest problems first and work my way down to the smallest ones. Why? Because the large problems always have the most widespread effects, and they tend to swallow the smaller problems once fixed. Changing the way I coded something to make it run faster, for instance, doesn't make any sense if the code itself doesn't work.

Similarly, tightening up the language of chapter 1 in the example I mentioned above doesn't make a lot of sense if you're going to rewrite the entire chapter anyway. So do that larger task first.

So, to recap: Approach your editing logically. Break it down into manageable tasks. Work from largest to smallest, and complete each one before moving onto the next. Don't take The Big Bang Theory approach. Keep your brain from going splodey on you. You're going to need it for the next writing project.

Feel free to comment if this method helps, or describe your own editing techniques. I'd love to hear others' experiences.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

At the moment, I don't have any words of wisdom to impart,
so when this happens (which will be more often than not), I'll provide a quick
view into the riveting life of this part-time writer.

Most of my day is obviously spent at the day job. I
currently work as an applications developer at a local university. Those who
know me or who can do a little research on the internet can probably figure out
which university I'm referring to, but since this is my WRITING blog, I would
rather not go into details on that here. I mention it just to illustrate the
fact that I have a full time job and the writing is done part-time whenever I
have a chance. I also have a family, including four kids, who I spend a lot of
time with, so that cuts down further on available writing time.

For those of you who have a full-time, non-writing job, have
lots of family commitments, and are trying to fit writing into your schedule,
it's important to remember two things.

1. You need to be very disciplined and schedule writing time
in the time you do have.

2. Many times, life throws you a lot of curve balls, and
that spare time can get eaten very easily. Always remember to be flexible. It
also helps to be prepared to write whenever you have a few moments, so bringing
a notebook and pen, tablet, laptop, recorder, or whatever other portable
writing tools you can think of with you wherever you go will help you get your
writing in.

I just completed a children's book writing course at the
Institute of Children's Literature (ICL). I highly recommend this institution
if you're looking for some great courses on writing for children where the
instructors will work with you one-on-one to help you polish your writing as
well as give you assistance on looking for markets for your writing. Check
outICL's website here: http://www.institutechildrenslit.com.
My instructor for the course was Clara Gillow Clark, and I would highly
recommend her as an instructor as well. Knowledgeable, professional,
encouraging, fun, and above all, patient – those are just some of her
qualities. To apply for a course there, you first need to take a writing
aptitude test.I can't imagine anyone
doing poorly on this test, but it is a requirement in order to take courses
there. Once they've accepted your test, you can enroll in their Writing
for Children and Teenagers beginners course, which will teach you how to write
short fiction and nonfiction for children's magazines, as well as briefly touch
on how to write a book for children. (My instructor for that course was
Geraldine Gutfreund, another great instructor.) Once you've completed the
introductory course, you can enroll in one of their advanced courses, one of
which is the writing children's books course I just took.

Some projects I'm currently working on are:

1. Doing some editing on a middle-grade fantasy novel
called Oliver and the Underlings while I wait for word from an agent I've
submitted some pages to.

2. Working on a short story for The First Line Literary
Journal. Every quarter, a new opening line is introduced and you are challenged
to write a story using that line as the first line of your story. You can find
details on that magazine here: http://www.thefirstline.com
, if you're interested.

3. Awaiting word on the status of three short stories I
submitted to the Center for Educational Testing at the University of Kansas. I
figured I'd try a new market for my stories I've never tried before, and I
think it would be exciting to have my stories assist in a child's educational
process. If anyone would like to learn more about this market, check out their website: http://cete.ku.edu.

4. Taking a new course offered by Courseracalled Fantasy and Science Fiction: The
Human Mind, Our Modern World. It looked interesting, and I'm sure it would help
me with my writing. And, it's FREE. If you want to check out what free courses
Coursera has to offer, check out their website: http://www.coursera.com.

That's all for now. I'll share more info on the
day-to-day goings on of this writer another time.